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Jericho Reach
“It is born of blood and darkness and to blood and darkness it shall return.”'' --Words spoken during a reading of the Emperor's Tarot at'' the outset of the Achilus Crusade The Jericho Reach, also known as the Jericho Sector, is a region of space close to the Eastern Fringe of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Ultima Segmentum. This area of the galaxy was once a part of the Imperium of Man in ancient days, remaining so for millennia until it fell into an age of isolation, disintegration and evil. It has been lost to the Imperium for over four thousand Terran years. During those long millennia, many of its worlds became tainted by Chaos, whilst others were infested by dangerous xenos. To recover the Reach and restore it to the Emperor's light, the Imperium recently unleashed the Achilus Crusade. The Achilus Crusade is a war of re-conquest fought on three fronts within the region. It is a brutal conflict waged with every weapon that the Imperium possesses and its leaders have sworn in the Emperor's name that they will never retreat and never surrender. In spite of such intentions, the Achilus Crusade may yet fail. The growing Tau Empire, ever mindful of opportunities to further spread the Greater Good, has cast covetous eyes over the worlds and resources of the Reach and has initiated its own efforts to claim it. On worlds long forsaken by the Imperium, the slaves of the Chaos Gods reign while at the Reach’s heart, unsuspected at the Crusade’s start, the servants of the Ruinous Powers have created a blasphemous domain ruled by Daemon Princes and Chaos Lords, where the mutable laws of the Warp rather than those of realspace govern the fragile bounds of space-time. Even worse, from the depths of the intergalactic void the Great Devourer has once more made itself known. The Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon seek to consume all the inhabited worlds that lie within the Jericho Reach and leave nothing but the corpses of dead planets spread amongst the ancient stars. While the war between the forces of the Achilus Crusade and its many enemies rages, others with agendas far older than those of the Crusade move amongst the stars of the Jericho Reach. The Reach is watched over by the Deathwatch: the unique division of Space Marines raised from every Chapter that is bound into the service of the Inquisition and tasked with defending the Imperium from the worst alien threats. While the rest of the Imperium turned its face from the Jericho Sector after it fell, the vigilance of the Deathwatch has never wavered. In the long millennia of the Age of Shadow when the sector was sundered from the Emperor's grace, the Deathwatch still stood sentinel from their Watch Fortress and scattered Watch Stations dotted across the fallen sector. By their hands, many enemies of the Imperium have been defeated, and many great threats ended before they rose up to plague the greater Imperium of Man, even when they were unknown to the Deathwatch’s own distant masters within the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos. However, these battles have been but the prelude to the terrible strife to come, for according to many within the Imperium the Time of Ending has come at last, and the final watch has begun. The fate of the Jericho Reach now hangs in the balance and only the Deathwatch may possess the skill and tenacity required to bring victory for the leaders of the Achilus Crusade -- and protect the Emperor's children from the terrible threat to all the galaxy that breeds within the Reach's confines. With the extraordinary discovery of the Jericho Maw Warp Gate in 777.M41, a piece of advanced technology whose mysterious creators remain unknown but which connects the Eastern Fringe to the Calixis Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus, the possibility of using this stable Warp conduit to launch an Imperial Crusade into the Jericho Reach and reclaim this strategic area of space for the Imperium quickly found favour with the High Lords of Terra. Lord Militant Tiber Achilus formulated a plan to undertake such a unique military campaign and he proceeded to muster forces from the Adeptus Astartes, the Imperial Guard, the Adepta Sororitas, and scores of Imperial Navy warships to enact the Emperor's will, all under his command. The High Lords were mindful, however, that the existence of such a Warp Gate offered dire peril as well as opportunity, and under a shroud of the deepest secrecy, with the complicity of the Inquisitorial masters of both the Calixis Sector and the Departmento Munitorum, launched an Imperial Crusade from a staging point half-way across the galaxy from the territory it intended to conquer. The Imperium soon found itself faced with significant obstacles in bringing these goals to fruition as the attempted re-conquest soon become mired in blood. The Achilus Crusade would become a grinding conflict fraught with reversals of fortune and beset by enemies both unexpected and nightmarish. As for the Lord Militant Achilus himself, he would not live to see out the campaign's first decade. History Great Crusade The area of space now known as the Jericho Reach was claimed by the Emperor's Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade over ten millennia ago and was then-called the Jericho Sector. Though few details of its founding exist within the remainign Imperial records from that time, it is known to have been an exceptionally bloody campaign. The events of the Horus Heresy and the aftermath of that galactic civil war further devastated the worlds of the sector. Nonetheless, in the following millennia untamed worlds were claimed and many xenos empires were destroyed to be claimed for humanity. The Jericho Sector became a bastion of Imperial might, carved from the cold wilderness of space and colonised by a dynamic and expanding Mankind. Worlds that had been reduced to ash and rubble during the Heresy and the Great Scouring that followed it were rebuilt into mighty industrial centres, colonial populations grew in numbers and wealth and with them also grew the wealth and splendour of the Jericho Sector. The old wounds from the Horus Heresy slowly disappeard due to the guarantee of order and stability in the sector. From the highest obsidian spires of the Hive World of Verronus to the glittering glass shrines of sainted Eleusis, the dominion of the Imperium covered more than a hundred worlds within the sector. Through the ravages of time, wars and other disasters the Jericho Sector remained a paragon of Imperial order and strength for many millennia, until quite unexepctedly all was lost to the darkness and bloodshed from which it had been forged. Age of Shadow During the time that became known as the Age of Shadow in the Reach, darkness and anarchy reclaimed the Jericho Sector. This period saw the glory of the Jericho Sector wiped away, reverting the entire region to an area known only as the Jericho Reach on the astrographic charts of the Imperium's Navigators, an area of the galaxy untouched by the Emperor's light and awash in evil. The decline began during the time of misrule, unbelief, and tyranny known as the Age of Apostasy in the early 36th Millennium. During this time of civil war when the Imperium came closer to its own destruction than any other time since the Horus Heresy, for reasons unknown, communication between the Jericho Sector and the core of the Imperium became more and more difficult. Astropaths had an increasingly hard time sending and reciving intact telepathic messages, and starships travelling in and out of the region were lost to Warp Storms that gathered as if to increase the sector’s isolation. To make matters even worse, a massive Ork WAAAGH! on a scale unseen in millennia utterly severd the the great trade routes between the sector and the powerful worlds of the Imperial Realm of Ultramar to the galactic south. With the Imperium as whole awash in strife and war, the Jericho Sector became marginalised and forgotten, ultimately slipping beyond the reach of the Imperium without a single Administratum bureaucrat on Terra noting its passing. The few records of this time that remain indicate a corrosive dread came to pervade the sector after it was cut-off from the rest of the Imperium. Slowly, one by one, the planets previosuly under direct Imperial rule from the sector capital world of Verronus slipped away. Unable to gain aid from the broader Imperium, some fell to warring on their neighbours as a result of paranoia or unbridled ambition; their leaders laid low by the flaws in their own hearts, or because they clutched at the promises of the Dark Gods. Others, such as Verronus itself, succumbed to rebellion from within. Almost within a single generation, much of the Jericho Sector had slipped into anarchy and feral barbarism due to its isolation. When the last Imperial naval patrol was recalled to Kar Duniash to take on pressing duties, they would report that the last tatters of Imperial order in the Jericho Sector were but small and ragged circles of light beset by encroaching darkness. Soon these too fell, unsung and disregarded, and the sector's Age of Shadow would claim its worlds and its people for over five millennia. Of the notable events of this period, almost nothing has been recorded. Only the Astartes of the Deathwatch know some of what happened during the Age of Shadow and even they recorded little, for their attention was cast elsewhere and their concerns encompassed far greater events than the fates of a few forlorn worlds on the edge of human space. The formal end of Imperial civilisation within the Jericho Sector came when the great census and reassessment of the Domains of Man known as the Third Mesericordia Imperialis Mundi was declared in the 37th Millennium by the High Lords of Terra. In the course of that extensive survey of the Emperor's realm, the Jericho Sector, along with a dozen other sectors along the Eastern Fringe, were decreed to no longer exist until an Imperial Crusade could once again return them to the Imperium’s fold. The region was re-designated by Imperial astrocartographers as the Jericho Reach, and so returned in name and nature to the darkness from which it had been raised almost six thousand Terran years earlier. The Warp Storms and temporal distortion that so isolated the Jericho Reach at the start of the Age of Shadow have never truly abated, while the Imperium’s claimed borders have only shrunken further away from it. As a result, voyaging into the region remained a dangerous task only undertaken by the Deathwatch and a few Inquisitors over the last four millennia. This state of isolation changed, however, with the discovery and opening of the Jericho Maw Warp Gate which linked the Jericho Reach to the Calixis Sector on the other side of the galaxy, making this region accessible to the Imperium once again and unleashiing the inevitable Imperial Crusade. The Jericho-Maw Warp Gate , which ended the isolation of the Jericho Reach from the Imperium of Mankind.]] The Jericho-Maw Warp Gate connects the lost Imperial sector that is now called the Jericho Reach in the Segmentum Ultima with the turbulent Chaos-afflicted Segmentum Obscurus that is home to the Calixis Sector and the frontier region of the Halo Stars known as the Koronus Expanse. Its origins remain utterly unexplained, and its true nature is just one of the many mysteries to be found within all of these regions of the galaxy. The Warp Gate was discovered in 755.M41 by the Imperium, and was already active at that time, although for how long that was the case remains debatable among Imperial savants. Within the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos, many believe that the gate had been dormant for perhaps tens of thousands of Terran years until some unknown event triggered it no earlier than 397.M41. This timing may link the activation of the Warp Gate to the so-called “Year of Dreaming Depths,” a period of sustained and often deadly Warp disturbances that affected the Koronus Expanse around that time. What is apparent is that the Warp Gate was unknown to the people of the Jericho Sector before the Age of Night, because the sector's own once well-known Warp routes passed through its present location for centuries with no reports of any anomalous activity. Warp Gates are stable two-way passageways between two distant interstellar locations that have been linked by the gate's technology through the Immaterium. While extraordinarily rare, they are not unknown to the Imperium, nor are they uniform in nature, appearance, or range. Perhaps the most widespread network of such gates is the Webway of the Eldar, a series of portals interconnecting an arterial network through the Warp that once spanned the ancient domains of the lost Eldar empire, although the network is now much reduced in scope and in constant peril of falling apart or to attacks by Warp entities since their ancient Fall. Other Warp Gates seem to be even older, far predating even the Eldar’s ancient rise to prominence, and belonging to beings and races like the legendary Old Ones who are little more than myths of a lost age in the galaxy's history. The Jericho-Maw Warp Gate belongs in this category, according to the Imperium's xenological savants. The physical structures that represent the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate's two termini at opposite ends of the galaxy are identical: they are massive, irregular crescents that float alone in the vacuum of interstellar space, immobile and utterly resistant to the action of any external force upon them. They seem to have been crafted from dark stone that is shot through with bizarre geometric patterns in tarnished golden and pearlescent metal. They shimmer slightly when viewed with human eyes, almost as if they were a mirage of no substance. This is an optical illusion that may be produced by the continuous and paradoxical gravitic and electromagnetic stresses encountered within the gate’s vicinity, and the fact that the entire structure is wrapped in a powerful dimensional shearing effect much like -- although many times more powerful -- an Imperial starship’s or Titan's Void Shields. Any solid matter that passes within the sweep of the crescent’s arms, which span a distance of over 100 kilometres, disappears into darkness and is hurled irresistibly to the other side of the gate and spat out, arriving on the other side of the galaxy, through what might be described as a "corridor" or "tunnel" in the Warp. As far as can be determined, the time taken by the transit is negligible; mere seconds of subjective time pass during an icy black dislocation that spans a distance that would normally take an Imperial starship using a standard Warp-Drive several years to traverse, if such a direct journey were even possible. The passage is not without its dangers. Though no Warp-Drive or Gellar Field is required to make use of the Warp Gate, the passage through it is a turbulent one. It was quickly discovered that any vessels not sturdily constructed that attempted to make the journey could be badly damaged or even destroyed outright by the gravimetric stresses of the transit, limiting the Warp Gate’s practical use to warships and other powerfully-built spacecraft. The existence of the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate is not simply an enigma and an opportunity for humanity, but also a potential source of danger for the Imperium of Man, which the Imperium’s masters are very mindful of. The gate exists and it is now open and so the Imperium must either destroy it or claim it -- there is no other choice that is commensurate with the security of the Emperor's realms. But the problem has been made more complicated by the fact that the Imperium's savants have so far discovered no method for controlling the Warp Gate’s functions short of destroying the physical structure of one of the two crescent-shaped terminals. This is an action that would require something on the order of the firepower of an entire Imperial battlefleet to accomplish. As such, it was the discovery of the Warp Gate and the difficulty of either destroying it or controlling it that made the launch of the Achilus Crusade inevitable, and may ultimately force the High Lords of Terra to order far more drastic action should it fail. Locations Well of Night The Well of Night is the name the first Imperial probe ships that passed through the Maw-side aperture of the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate gave to the stellar dead zone that awaited them on the other side. The Well of Night is an immense expanse devoid of stars or planets, its emptiness broken only by drifting invisible dust clouds that can shred hull armour as surely as a missile salvo and deadly null-energy reefs that can such a starship's conduits dry of power and leave it floundering in the merciless vacuum of space. At the heart of this deadly void stands the Jericho Gate terminus. Since the Warp Gate’s discovery, repeated attempts have been made to fashion a permanent base in proximity to the Jericho terminus. This has met with repeated failure, both because of th perils of the Well of Night itself and the perilous gravitic distortions and energy waves emitted from time-to-time by the gate itself. As a compromise, the Adeptus Mechanicus maintains a warship, usually of no less than Cruiser class, on station near the gate terminus to monitor it and serve as a relay point for ships making the journey through from the Calixis terminus. Although the nominal tenure for these ships is ten months, it is rumoured in Imperial Navy circles that no single vessel during the last decade has lasted more than seven months before having to send for relief and quit its post thanks to hull degradation and mounting damage.To deal with this problem, an orbital dock above the Forge World of Lathe-Het in the Calixis Sector is now set aside permanently to attend to the ongoing need for repair of al ships that take up semi-permanent station near either teminus of the gate. Once they have passed through the Warp Gate, most starships seldom tarry long in the Well of Night before engaging their Warp-Drives and moving on to their destination. Known Systems 'Erioch System' ]] This star system is a place of mystery and foreboding. The central astral body within this system is the Erioch star, which is a crumpled, angry white dwarf whose slow death has been measured in eons. Seven planets -- no larger in diameter than Terra -- circle this ancient star, orbiting perfectly in a circular pattern, their spacing distance between them astronomically exact. This worlds are nothing more than bare rock, completely devoid of life with no known life signs having ever existed. Even stranger, these planets bare no marks or craters that show signs of impacts with meteorites or other stellar debris. Circling the sixth planet is the Watch Fortress of the Deathwatch. It is unknown why the Watch Fortress was placed in this isolated system. Unless granted the highest clearance and the most secret information, it is impossible for a Navigator to even locate Erioch within the warp. Even with the appropriate information, those wishing to visit the system must drop out of warp into Realspace at the system's edge, or not at all. 'The Blood Trinity' During the bygone days of the Jericho Sector, this system was once known as the Mataras Sisters and was regarded as a jewel of the Imperium. At one time, this system supported four verdant and paradise-like Agri-Worlds that served as a breadbasket for the planets of the Jericho Sector's core. The Age of Shadows heralded a slow descent into blasphemy as the abandoned human populations soon embraced barbarity and the false promises of the Chaos Gods. *'Mataras IV (Frontier World)' - This once verdant Frontier World was subjected to the final sanction of Exterminatus which was carried out by the Deathwatch in 920.M37. The three surviving worlds of Mataras became known as the Blood Trinity which thrived on internecine conflict and unceasing violence. 'Vanir System' Vanir is a star system of inhabited worlds that was the site of a frantic battle between the forces of the Achilus Crusade and rebels loyal to the self-proclaimed Monarchs of the Kingdom of Vanir. Having withdrawn their forces after taking massive casualties from the advancing Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon, the desperate forces of Battlegroup Icarus soon became embroiled in a race to overcome the rebel forces that had taken possession of the system. Battle Fronts 'Orpheus Salient' The Orpheus Salient was once the most secure of the three battlefronts of the Achilus Crusade. The planets located Rimward of the Reach were made up of sparsely populated frontier worlds and a few former Imperial worlds - many which had kept faith with the Imperial Creed through the long millennia during the Age of Shadow. These still-loyal worlds even managed to maintain some haphazard contact with the Imperium, providing the Crusade's scouting forces with aid and intelligence. 'Known Worlds' *'Beseritor (Hive World)' - This Hive world was one of the Orpheus Salient's last great success prior to its first encounter with the Tyranids. Being within short Warp distance to several systems under attack by Hive Fleet Dagon, this world served as a rally point and resupply station for Imperial forces involved in countering the Tyranid onslaught. *'Castobel (Hive World)' - A battered hive-world ruled by noble-born elite that remained loyal to the Imperium's ways through the long Age of Shadow. Not long after its rediscovery by the Achilus Crusade, Castobel faced the deadly threat from the encroaching Tyranid fleet of Hive Dagon. *'Cocijo (Desert World)' - Formerly identified as a verdant planet by ancient star charts, the world of Cocijo turned out to be an arid Desert world, with only a sparse, primitive population that had diverged too far from humanity. Branded as mutants by the Inquisition, the Crusade soon cleansed the planet of those few descendants of the ancient settlers. Those that survived the purge were used as slaves or assigned duties with the penal legions. The reasons for the once civilised planet's collapse could not be readily explained. *'Eleusis (Shrine World)' - A former Shrine World that was once a site of holy pilgrimage, basking in serene holiness for five thousand years, during the Age of Shadow the devotions of the holy clerics were twisted to the worship of the Dark Gods of Chaos. *'Freya (Mining World)' - Freya was once a mining world, rich in raw materials which once fed the lost Forge Worlds within the Reach. During the the long millennia of the Age of Shadow the world fell into anarchy as the entire planet became a battleground for gangs, techno-barbarians, cultists and mutants. The remaining Imperial presence remained in a lone orbiting sensor array circling one of Freya's moons that served the Deathwatch in its secret vigil. But soon tragedy befell it, as the Tyranids made their presence known within the Reach in 814.M41. *'Hethgard (Fortress World)' - A former mining world which became sucked dry of its resources, the fortress engineers of the Achilus Crusade turned the mine-scarred surface into a formidable defensive bastion, effectively turning the world into one large fortress. Hethgaurd successfully defended itself from attack from the Tyranid menace of Hive Fleet Dagon. *'Manuxet (Ocean World)' - This large planet is an Ocean World with thousands of islands that spread out to make up an endless archipelagos. The world's population is composed of technologically inferior nomads scattered amongst these numerous islands. The small of land combined with the gravitational effects of its three moons causes severe storms that often accompany severe and unpredictable tidal cycles. The trade off is that this world is teeming with sea life which provided a reliable source of food for the settlers during the long millennia of isolation. *'Xyan (Penal World)' - Xyan is a hostile world whose atmosphere is covered in sulphurous fumes from the bubbling hot springs scattered across its surface. There is frequent tectonic activity caused from the planet's active core. This world also contains large swamps full of animal life that has adapted to its intensely acidic environment. The air on this world is breathable, though it tastes foul. Those that stay on this world have scar tissue in their lungs, but can tolerate the highly sulphuric atmosphere and diet better than an offworlder. Their vision has also adapted to the haze of their environment somewhat. During the age of the Jericho Sector, this world became a penal planet. Millennia later, the planet's population were the descendants of these amoral humans that survived the brutal conditions of their world. When reunited with the Crusade they did not respond well with reunifying with the Imperium. 'Acheros Salient' The Acheros Salient was the central advancing arm of the Achilus Crusade. It soon became bogged down in blood and infamy. It showed the least progress in terms of worlds captured and, even given the massive losses on the Orpheus Salient, this front consumed the greatest amount of Imperial lives and war materiel on the pyre of battle. For the soldiers of the Imperial Guard, serving in the Acheros Salient was akin to being deployed in hell, whilst to the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes this region was a battlefield made up of everything they hated and despised, made reality. For those warriors of the Deathwatch, this region was a festering canker poised to make the heart of the Jericho Reach rot, whither and die. 'Known Worlds' *'Alphos (Fortress World)' *'Calisi (Fortress World)' *'Karlack (Fortress World)' - Karlack was a Fortress world and the principle seat of the Achilus Crusade which contained the single most powerful concentration of the Imperium's military might within the Reach. *'Pyrathas (Fortress World)' 'Canis Salient' The Canis Salient was the largest and oldest warzone within the Jericho Reach. Located to the coreward of the Reach, its first battles were fought in a Crusade to liberate dozens of human-inhabited worlds from Tau expansion. This Imperial Crusade did not go well, however, as the Imperials soon found themselves embroiled in a war on two fronts as they were assaulted from another xenos menace - the malevolent Tyranids. Slamming into the Imperial thrust, only through great and terrible sacrifices were the Imperials able to halt the aliens from invading and stripping life from every world within the Canis Salient and beyond. Known Worlds *'Spite (Fortress World)' - Spite was a Fortress world from which Lord Commander Sebiascor Ebongrave marshaled the forces under his command against the Tau. This world is a heavily settled and industrialised world that was left in ruin following a terrible attack by human malcontents (widely believed to have been supported by the Tau) which killed millions of people. Quarantined Worlds Lord Commander Ebongrave's aggressively sought to root out the Tau influence on the Imperial worlds of the Canis Salient, and so he deemed worlds that he considered to be rife with Tau emissaries and sympathisers beyond hope of redemption. He ordered them quarantined, meaning that no spacecraft were allowed in or out. To many, the horrible fates of the Quarantined Worlds were the starkest evidence of Ebongrave’s madness. The three Qurantined Worlds included: *'Argoth (Hive World) ' *'Kaggeran (Agri-World)' *'Rheelas (Mining World)' Known Stellar Phenomenon *'The Black Reef' - The Black Reef is a stellar phenomenon composed of a series of gravitational anomalies that are extremely difficult to navigate. The contorted orbits and fluctuating gravities have pulled in hundreds of planets and millions of asteroids which eventually tear these stellar debris violently apart. Many of these planets were once inhabited long before the Age of the Imperium and are littered with scattered ruins of ancient cites on these remnants of planetary crust that endlessly float through the strange eddies and currents of the Reef. 'Warzones' 'Cellebos Warzone' After the appalling reversal of fortune on the Acheros Salient, Lord Militant Tetrarchus resumed his assault on the region, pouring all reinforcements he could muster into a bloody war of grinding attrition that spanned over 50 star-systems and 25 years of struggle. The war focused around the control of key systems in what was later referred to as the Cellebos Warzone. 'Known Worlds' *'Khazant (Death World)' - This former Imperial world became a renowned corsair stronghold, its oppressed population having long been enslaved to one warlord or another prior to the outset of the Achilus Crusade. The Imperial forces faced massive organised resistance on the heavily contested War world, with control of it swinging back and forth multiple times. *'Magog (Agri-World)' - This formerly stable Agri-world was once filled with loyal citizens to the God-Emperor and the Imperial Creed, but by the time the Achilus Crusade came into contact with this planet, it had become a breeding ground and training centre for the Forces of Chaos that extended into the Jericho Reach. The planet's environment and indigenous life all bore the taint of the Warp. Though the foodstuffs are hideously deformed, Magog still remained a crucial resource for providing the heretic forces with abundant food supplies. *'Tabius Rasa (Feudal World)' - A technologically primitive world that had reverted to a feudal state during the Age of Shadows. Though this world reluctantly bares human life and it weather is dramatic, the population of this planet thrived. They even managed to establish a stable society that seemed free of Warp taint. *'Vanity (Hive World)' - Vanity was once a former Hive world known as Corulsiem, a prominent world that was once the capital of the Cellebos sub-sector, and second in its economic and military might to Varrus itself. During the long millennia of the Age of Shadows, Corulsiem was soon riven with internal division and strife, which quickly devolved into a global, atomic conflagration which left the planet as a barren, radioactive and haunted wasteland of shattered hive cities and fallen grandeur. *'Vespasia (Agri-World)' - The world of Vespasia is a lush and verdant planet with a rich bounty that could greatly assist with the Crusade's resources. Its proximity to the Hadex Anomaly had a substantial effect on the world's population. The vast agricultural resources were managed by slaves descended from Imperial citizens and over the long millennia had completely forsaken the Imperial Creed. The vile hertic forces of the Stigmartus provided the system's defences in exchange for a generous tithe of the planet's harvests. Living under these harsh conditions of constant degradation and threats of starvation, the population had no choice but to comply with their overlords' wishes. An unauthorised initiative by agents of the Ecclesiarchy infiltrated the slaves' culture in order to instigate a rebellion in the name of the God-Emperor. Once the world was cleansed of Chaos taint, the system would prove ripe for compliance. 'Known Stellar Phenomenon' 'The Hadex Anomaly' This malefic phenomena is similar to a Class III Warp disturbance, whose overlapping vortex of turbulence in the Immaterium spills over into Realspace, distorting reality and making stellar navigation and observation nearly impossible. The origins of this phenomena can be traced to an ill portended planetary alignment which occurred in 656.M40 -- the result of some great and bloody design of mortal Chaos worshippers, whose forbidden ritual unleashed the abyss of the Warp into reality. Nearly a dozen inhabited worlds that made up of the core of the Jericho Sector of old was drowned within its hellish radiance, including the once vaunted Hive World of Varrus. This world fell into bloody civil war and was rumoured to have been transformed into a daemon world, where the servants of the Ruinous Powers planned the ultimate destruction of the Reach. 'Known Worlds' *'Bulwark (Daemon World)' - Bulwark was once a proud Fortress world which guarded the original Secotr capital of Verronus, but was later claimed by the worshippers of the Blood God Khorne. Following the appearance of the Anomaly, the citizens of Bulwark perpetrated all of the atrocities that soon followed. The forsaken world soon became a massive charnel house of death and blood, lorded over by a a powerful Daemon Prince of Khorne, named Krakiota. *'Coranin (Daemon World)' - When the Anomaly first appeared, this former Feral world was claimed by the Lord of Change, Tzeentch as its own. Soon the planet became of Daemon world, corrupted by the malign touch of the Changer of Ways, as he utterly corrupted the planet and its inhabitants. *'Durell (Daemon World)' - Durrel was a former Hive World that fell to the sensuous temptations of pleasure and hedonistic desires of the Lord of Pleasure, Slaanesh. The world became one Grand Temple of Slaanesh. *'Samech (Forge World)' - A former loyal Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus the sad truth was that the faith in the Omnissiah had been slowly dimming some centuries before the infamous event of the emergence of the Anomaly. When this stellar phenomenon consumed the world, the forges readily embraced their damnation, seeking out the Ruinous Powers to further their own aims. During the Achilus Crusade, Samech stood as the main source of armaments used against the Imperial forces. This world also came to be known as 'the iron pit', becoming a haven for debased human renegades that travelled there to trade and barter. *'Venkrous (Daemon World)' - Venkrous was a formally lush and beautiful Agri-world before the Anomaly appeared. It soon became twisted and warped by the rotting touch of Lord Plagues, Nurgle. 'Charon Stars' The Charon Stars, located near the Hadex Anomaly, was filled with life tainted by the Warp. It was also the wretched domain from which the Dark Powers were in control of the heretics that contested the Cellebos Warzone. It was here that the corrupted priests of Chaos and Chaos Lords made sacrificial offerings in order to appease the Anomaly itself, in an attempt to win favour from their Dark Gods. Though these stars no longer glow a sickly red, their worlds are hardly cleansed of its corrupting influence, possibly bearing the taint of Chaos for millennia to come. 'The Greyhell Front' The Greyhell Front was one of the two main battlezones where Imperial forces of the Achilus Crusade were concentrated. The Imperial Guard and Navy struggled to establish footholds close to Tau occupied space. This volatile region of space was regarded as a meat grinder by the troops serving there. 'Known Worlds' *'Baraban (Feral World)' - Baraban is a Feral world of endless temperate forests and was home to huge Vespid and Kroot armies. The war on Baraban was a conventional one, but the forces of the Imperial Guard were constantly denied victory as they fell apart in terror and disarray as they were assailed by strange ghosts of unknown origins. *'Bekrin (Shrine World)' - Bekrin is a Cardinal world and religious capital of the diocese covering much of what was the Canis Salient. Its clergy was forced to evacuate the planet to escape the approaching Tyranids Hive Fleet, and though they were turned aside before they reached Bekrin, the world was never resettled. *'Dakinor (Dead World)' *'Ravacene (Death World)' - Ravacene was a notorious Death world, that was covered in ash-choked forests from the volcanoes that covered the planet's single planet-wide continent. It is said that this is how the Greyhell Front derived its name. The Imperial Guard fought a bleak, brutal war of attrition against both the Kroot and the planet alike. *'Veren (Feral World)' - The Feral world of Veren is a world of glassy black mountains and shallow oceans teeming with life. Though Veren was of little strategic value the Tau were determined to prevent the Imperium from conquering this planet. Convinced that something lay on Veren that the Tau wanted to defend, the Imperial Guard were dispatched to fight a brutal campaign against the Tau for control of the contested world. The Outer Reach Known Worlds *'Jove's Descent (Feral World) - '''This strange and mysterious world has drawn both human renegades and Rogue Traders to its jungle-covered surface to penetrate the mystery of the ruins of what may have once been the centre of a xenos empire believed destroyed during the Great Crusade. *'Polyphemnos (Death World)' - Polyphemnos is a huge, heavy-gravity primordial planet and is an infamous Death world, forbidden to human contact even during the rule of the Jericho Sector. *'Shedu (Desert World)' - Shedu is a Desert world that once marked the boundary of the old Jericho Sector's civilised worlds and the start of its spinward frontier. It later became the domain of a few debased mutants and scattered clans of warring Orks. This arid, desert planet is the only life sustaining world found on the edge of the Slinnar Drift. Known Stellar Phenomenon *'Slinnar Drift''' - The Slinnar Drift is a long and drawn out star cluster that is notable for having curious stability of local Warp-space conditions within the region. This stellar formation's planetary system, though hostile, possesses much mineral wealth as well as exotic chemical elements produced by its active proto-stars. Velk'han Sept The Velk'Han Sept is the empire ruled by the Tau and was a primary objective of the Imperial Crusade in the Canis Salient. Known Worlds *'Iphigenia (Tau Ruled World)' - The world of Iphigenia is a human world with a large population, totaling around seven billion. Its people are born into one of several dozen tribes, ruled by their own king, and in turn united under a High King. Alongside the tribal kings, the people of this world owe their fealty to Tau emissaries known as the Grey Kings. The tribal kins hand over their most technically skilled people to the orbital stations on which the Grey Kings live, and there, re-educate these chosen few and train them in the use of Tau technology. They are then sent to work elsewhere in the Sept under an Earth Caste work team or Air Caste starship crews. *'Krrk'tikit (Tau Ruled World)' - On the surface, the world of Krrk'tikit is a barren rock bereft of any identifiable terrain features, but beneath its surface lay crystalline caves the riddle the planet to its very core. Humans never settled this world, and the Tau gave it over to their Vespid auxiliaries who built city-hives into the largest chambers. *'Tsua'Malor (Tau Ruled World)' - Tsua'Malor is the capital world of the Velk'Han Sept and the headquarters of the Mal'caor Shi. It was formerly an advanced human world that was transformed into shining example of civilisation and enlightenment by Earth Caste architects. Sources *''Deathwatch'' - Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 321-356 *''Deathwatch - The Achilus Assault'' (RPG) Category:History Category:Imperial Campaigns Category:J Category:Imperium Category:Tau Empire Category:Tyranid Category:History Category:Imperial Campaigns Category:J Category:Imperium Category:Tau Empire Category:Tyranid